Gentle Fingers
by Drakochannojutsu
Summary: Everything about her is so soft and gentle. What hurts the most about the sadness in her face is that he can't take it away. "Oichi tending to the wounds on Ieyasu's hands" prompt by Kakko @ tumblr thanks sweetie. Ieyasu/Oichi obviously.


Her hands are soft, though there are traces of calluses, where she once held a weapon. Ieyasu winces anyway as her fingers brush the raw skin of his knuckles, and she draws back in kind, sorrowful gaze turning on his face for a moment. He offers a smile, and the return of her own lips turning up into her gentle smile is enough to ease the sting as she wraps the bandage around his hand.

The way her hair falls around her face frames it, like a heart. A pity that face has been so long twisted with grief and pain and the depths of sorrow… If he could, he would take that pain and grasp it, pulling it out of her and tossing it away. But of course that was something beyond even his abilities.

Despite his ability to band together men from across the nation, and his ability to inspire hope with his words alone, he's completely incapable of taking the pain from one frightened and lonely woman's heart… His brows crease, lips turning down as she ties off the first bandage, and reaches for the cloth to clean his other hand. Ieyasu lifts the bandaged one upwards, staring at the cloth that hides the wounds. Such a thing should be in his power, by all rights, shouldn't it?

There is a gentle sadness in Oichi's face when she pays attention to something closely, as she was to the dirt on his hands, in the wounds. Everything about her is gentle and soft and beautiful, in a way that is at once classic and altogether new. Her will to survive, her stubbornness to not give up hope even when everything seems so lacking in it… That was what gave her such beauty.

She picked up another roll of bandages, and began wrapping his hand, and he watched her face. The sadness seemed to slip away with her determination, and when she'd finished, she glanced back up at his face.

"Is that better, Happy-sama?"

He smiled, and reached out to stroke fingers along her cheek, to tilt her chin upwards. "I told you… Ieyasu is fine."

"Y-yes of course, Ieyasu-sama."

Close enough.

She smiles again and it breaks his heart to see that sadness still in her face. She still can't remember, and he hasn't the heart to tell her. Wounds that he doesn't want to reopen… Or perhaps that he is afraid will make her run away, to remember her late husband…

Oichi gathers the cloth, and the shallow basin, as if she is preparing to leave, and before he is even sure what he is doing, Ieyasu bids her to wait.

"Is there something else you need, Ieyasu-sama?" She tilts her head at him, and though some part of him is sure of its wrongness, he leans down, catching her chin in a gentle touch, tilting it up so that their lips meet.

Just like every other part of her, her lips are soft, and she seems shocked for a moment, but does not pull away. She sets the basin aside, instead, and reaches up, fingers brushing across his cheeks and she kisses him back, her eyes slipping shut.

Ieyasu is the one to falter this time, and he feels the flush in his face. His hand falls away from her face, and she hesitates, pulling back, eyes full of worry.

"I'm sorry, Oichi-san, I overstep my place."

Her face flushes, but she does not release his face, and she stares evenly back into his eyes. "No. Do not apologize. You did nothing wrong…" Her flush deepens and she looks a little defiant for a brief moment. "I would like you to kiss me again, Ieyasu-sama…" And it seems she notices how forward her statement is, as a moment later she amends it to, "If… that is what you'd like to do."

He laughs, and it eases the worry in her face immediately, and he is all too happy to oblige, bandaged fingers brushing her hair from her face, the strands coarser than he'd expected, with how soft everywhere else on her was. Unexpected, but not unpleasant. It was better this way. Some unexpectedness in her otherwise gentle existence, too soft in many ways… But it wouldn't be right if she wasn't.

Their moment is interrupted too soon, and they pull away at the sudden sound of footsteps in the hall, and the spell is broken. Oichi gathers the medical supplies, and hurries from the room, bowing to him before she leaves. His heart aches at the sight of her, and he doesn't hear the first words of the man that enters to report the status of their troops' movements.


End file.
